No gerrymandering in the UK? Clearly you're too young to remember Westminster in the 1980s. True the Tory Party didn't shift the boundaries to suit their voters but they did it by changing politically marginal wards estates housing tenures to attract Tory voters and moving potential Labour voters to already safe wards or out of the authority altogether, The District Auditor wrote "I have found that the electoral advantage of the majority party was the driving force behind the policy of increased designated sales ... My view is that the Council was engaged in gerrymandering, which I have found is a disgraceful and improper purpose, and not a purpose for which a local authority may act." See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homes_for_votes_scandal.
Interesting as ever. But I wonder whether you have passed too easily over Gordon Brown as a 'Bartlet' - 1st in History and then a PhD in political history, and a lecturer in politics, who became a bit of an economics 'nerd' as well ("Post neoclassical endogenous growth theory", ok, Ed B. wrote it - but still). Chris Grey
Agree very hard with most of this. My flatmate and I at university pondered writing a book called “Words Mean Stuff” because, well, they do. But there are two things at play, aren’t there, intertwined: first, the simple misuse and misapplication of words like “gerrymander” and “supermajority”; second, the importation of American political ideas, causes and campaigns which don’t have the same resonance in the UK for all sorts of reasons, not least historical, BUT become important anyway, no matter how cuckoo-like they are. To take a facile example, it’s like young British criminals referring to the police as “the Feds”. Obviously not, but if enough of them do it, it takes in its own influence, alas.
It’s true that Bidenomics and the Green New Deal have had more effect in the mainstream party // the GND is an example of the opposite - the phrase, and the concept, was coined by the TUC Policy Research blog back in 2009 and it got picked up in the US.
Interesting post - as a Canadian, I can say that we, too, are constantly complaining about the Americanisation of our politics. The linguistic example that comes to mind is referring to a "prime minister-elect" after elections (there is no such thing). One minor correction though, Ben: Harper won a minority in 2006 and 2008 and won his majority in 2011.
A thorough review of the problem of British pundits and politicos who are more entranced by the US than their own country. Now if only somebody could think of a way to stop it...
No gerrymandering in the UK? Clearly you're too young to remember Westminster in the 1980s. True the Tory Party didn't shift the boundaries to suit their voters but they did it by changing politically marginal wards estates housing tenures to attract Tory voters and moving potential Labour voters to already safe wards or out of the authority altogether, The District Auditor wrote "I have found that the electoral advantage of the majority party was the driving force behind the policy of increased designated sales ... My view is that the Council was engaged in gerrymandering, which I have found is a disgraceful and improper purpose, and not a purpose for which a local authority may act." See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homes_for_votes_scandal.
Interesting as ever. But I wonder whether you have passed too easily over Gordon Brown as a 'Bartlet' - 1st in History and then a PhD in political history, and a lecturer in politics, who became a bit of an economics 'nerd' as well ("Post neoclassical endogenous growth theory", ok, Ed B. wrote it - but still). Chris Grey
Agree very hard with most of this. My flatmate and I at university pondered writing a book called “Words Mean Stuff” because, well, they do. But there are two things at play, aren’t there, intertwined: first, the simple misuse and misapplication of words like “gerrymander” and “supermajority”; second, the importation of American political ideas, causes and campaigns which don’t have the same resonance in the UK for all sorts of reasons, not least historical, BUT become important anyway, no matter how cuckoo-like they are. To take a facile example, it’s like young British criminals referring to the police as “the Feds”. Obviously not, but if enough of them do it, it takes in its own influence, alas.
1977 was a good year to be born, anyway.
It’s true that Bidenomics and the Green New Deal have had more effect in the mainstream party // the GND is an example of the opposite - the phrase, and the concept, was coined by the TUC Policy Research blog back in 2009 and it got picked up in the US.
https://greennewdealgroup.org/about-the-group/
Interesting post - as a Canadian, I can say that we, too, are constantly complaining about the Americanisation of our politics. The linguistic example that comes to mind is referring to a "prime minister-elect" after elections (there is no such thing). One minor correction though, Ben: Harper won a minority in 2006 and 2008 and won his majority in 2011.
A thorough review of the problem of British pundits and politicos who are more entranced by the US than their own country. Now if only somebody could think of a way to stop it...